


Love in the Time of Lockdown

by EllenOfOz



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Charlie's POV, Fluff, M/M, No Angst, No one has covid, Nonbinary Character, Nonbinary Hannah, POV First Person, Sushi Date, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, lockdown - Freeform, mention of Charlie/Cara, unexpected gifts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:13:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29367570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllenOfOz/pseuds/EllenOfOz
Summary: My name's Charlie, and my best friends are in love.At least, I'm ninety percent sure they are—neither of them will admit it, but they so are. They think they're being sneaky, but let me tell you, friend—I'veseenit.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 61
Kudos: 171
Collections: SQZ Fanzine Vol. 1





	Love in the Time of Lockdown

**Author's Note:**

> This story was my contribution to the [SPN Quarantine Zine (SQZ)](https://supernaturalquaranzine.tumblr.com/). All funds raised from this digital zine went to benefit [Direct Relief](https://www.directrelief.org/), so thanks to those who contributed! The zine team is planning a second volume, so stay tuned.
> 
> I tried something new in first person pov here--I hope you like it :)
> 
> Thanks to my usual crowd for making this story better: WaywardJenn, MalMuses, CBFirestarter and TrenchcoatBaby. Love yas.
> 
> The photo in the title banner is by Helga Christina on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/@helgachrist).

My name's Charlie, and my best friends are in love. 

At least, I'm ninety percent sure they are—neither of them will admit it, but they so are. They think they're being sneaky, but let me tell you, friend—I've _seen_ it. 

I’m starting this journal for a whole variety of reasons, but one of the main ones is that I want to be able to assure myself from time to time that I’m not crazy. I really am witnessing these two dumbasses fall for each other, and when the inevitable happens and I need to officiate their wedding, I’ll have the receipts.

It started back in September when we all began our second year at KU. I wasn’t there to witness the moment the two of them first beheld each other or whatever, but a few minutes later Dean whispered to me in our history class, “Who’s the new guy?”

Dutiful best friend I am, I followed his gaze to a few rows down in the seminar room, where a dark-haired, broad-shouldered guy sat. I had to shrug and admit that I had no idea. 

Later, Dean spotted him in the cafeteria and convinced me we should go sit with him. 

The tension rolling off the both of them as we approached was like some kind of static charge. 

“Hey, I’m Dean,” he’d said, holding out his hand. 

Up close, the new guy had bright blue eyes and a chiseled jawline, and was the kind of devastatingly handsome that I knew from being present for many, many Netflix binge nights with Dean, was exactly Dean’s type. Trouble was, no one else at college knew that Dean was attracted to guys—in fact, I’m pretty sure that before that moment, Dean himself hadn’t really known. 

Blue-eyes smiled up at Dean and extended a hand for him to shake. “Castiel,” he said in a low growl.

Fast forward a few months and the three of us are inseparable. Cas is living in an apartment downtown rather than on campus, but Dean and I live over there as well so we’ve been picking him up on the days we have early classes. 

The heart-eyes were basically there from the start, I swear—Cas always looked like he wanted to eat Dean alive, and Dean was happy to return the scorching stares. At first, I didn’t really appreciate having to third-wheel it all the time, but it didn’t take long to realize that Cas is actually the sweetest, kindest guy out there, if a little crazy-intense sometimes. 

So yeah, we did everything together—movies, study periods in the library. We kept trying to convince Cas to come out to parties on and off campus with us, but he was never into that scene. He just went right on coming to our movie nights at our place, and listened patiently as Dean explained the shenanigans from the party the previous night. For some reason, Dean never remembered to include the fact that he’d gone home with some chick or another, even after I would tell Cas about what I’d got up to. I wonder why that might have been…

I swear I’m not imagining it, though. I _know_ Dean’s attracted to guys, and just because I’ve never seen him get close to a guy at a party doesn’t mean he isn’t very bi. I’m not sure what it is that’s holding him back, or if I can even help him get over it. 

There’s something there, though.

Hey journal, it’s me again, ya girl.

I’m about to freaking kill someone around here, or at least get really upset at my villagers on Animal Crossing, which is essentially the same thing, right? 

I’m in lockdown with Dean. Just as we were about to head into spring break, we’ve instead found ourselves sent home and into lockdown. Dean and I are holed up in our apartment, and even though Cas’ place is only a few blocks away, it might as well be across the country. 

In some ways, being locked down with my bestie is awesome. Guy cooks a mean burger, and we have the same completely nerdy taste in movies, so for a few weeks there, we had a great time. We made sure to have facetime movie nights with Cas every other night, and made our way through the entire Lord of the Rings franchise, then the Marvel franchise. There’s been possibly more movie watching going on than there has been coursework, but we gotta protect our sanity somehow, right?

But lately, I hear talking coming from Dean’s room late into the night, some nights. At first, I just thought he was chatting with Sam, back home in Lawrence—he’s always been close with his brother and speaks to him a lot. But it was low, and kinda soft, even though I couldn’t hear what he was saying. I started wondering if it was Lisa or one of the other girls in our classes he’d sometimes chat up between lectures.

This morning, when I asked him why he looked like he hadn’t slept, he admitted to watching old episodes of _Merlin_ on Netflix with Cas, late into the night. 

“You’re watching that without me?” I asked. “It’s my favorite!” 

Dean just apologized and mumbled that they were already up to season three. Season Three!! I’m pissed at the two of them, but at the same time, I can’t really complain, since I’d been up watching episodes of _Black Mirror_ with the pretty girl from my Biology lab, Cara. Seriously, what would we have done without streaming TV?

Probably watch a lot more DVDs, I guess. 

Anyways, those two are up to something, I’m sure of it.

Something happened today that I feel I need to document. 

Since this whole pandemic started, we’ve barely been out of the house. I’ve known Dean has a thing with germs for a while now—our kitchen is always spotless and if I leave dirty laundry lying around, the death glares would be enough to knock anyone on their ass. So he’s been...reluctant to go out, even with a mask. 

Sometimes I do go to the store, but mostly we order groceries and take out, and get booze delivered. And then, lately, things we _haven’t_ ordered have started showing up.

I was wary of the random sushi dinner that showed up the first time. I certainly hadn’t ordered it, and Dean had been planning to cook spaghetti earlier in the day, he’d pointedly told me not to eat the grated cheese in the fridge (not that he once caught me eating it out of the bag like some kind of savage, nope). 

When the door buzzer rang, I went out, puzzled, to find several bags of sushi on the step. Dean came and took two of them from me with a blush tinging his cheeks, and disappeared towards his room, shutting the door behind him. 

Later, Cas texted me to ask if I’d enjoyed my sushi. Turns out he’d _also_ had sushi. 

When I quizzed Dean about this, he adamantly denied it was a date of any kind. But I have my suspicions. 

A few days later, I found Dean at the kitchen table. He turned the laptop towards me and asked, “You think Cas would like these?” There was a pink tinge to his ears, but otherwise he looked completely serious as I took in the fuzzy socks on the screen—blue, and covered with little suns. 

“Uh, I guess?” I hazarded. “It’s the middle of summer, though. Are you gonna buy them for him?” 

Dean turned the computer back around, a flustered kind of look about him as he said, “He said the other night he wasn’t looking forward to fall because his feet always get too cold in his apartment.” 

I’m pretty sure I stared at him for longer than he expected, because he looked back up at me and asked, “What? You don’t think he’ll like ‘em?”

“No, no,” I assured him. “He’ll love them, for sure.”

I walked back out of there with “ _what the fuck?!_ ” screeching in my brain, but that wasn’t even the end of it. 

A week later, among other food orders and random other things, a huge box arrived. Seriously, it was chest-high on me, and curiously light when I picked it up off the ground. 

Dean opened it in the living room this time, since it was easier than trying to fit the box through his bedroom door. We had to work together to pull the thing out of there, but…

It was a giant, stuffed Snorlax. No joke, this thing is bigger than the kids that live in the apartment down the hall. 

But the best thing about it was the look on Dean’s face—a perfect mix of obvious joy, and abject embarrassment. I’ve never seen a face the shade of pink that he turned, and he just stood there as I squealed and dove in for the first hug. 

“Is this from Cas as well?” I asked, from the midst of my plush Pokémon cuddle.

Dean cleared his throat before answering. “I, uh...I might have mentioned to Cas that Snorlax was my favorite.”

“Oh, he is sooooo head over heels for you, dude,” I said, laughing. 

“Shut up, that’s not true,” he replied, but the shy grin on his face said otherwise.

Anyways, now the Snorlax body pillow is on Dean’s bed, and I’m reasonably sure he sleeps cuddling it.

Yep, they still won’t admit it, but they’re in love. 

Hoo boy. It’s all been going down since last I wrote. 

Covid is still very much a thing, but for some unknown and godforsaken reason, we’ve been required to return to campus for lectures, starting from late August. The place was hot as the Gerudo Desert and masks were mandatory. 

I remember Dean being on edge all morning, drinking something like three coffees before we even made it out of the apartment and generally looking shifty. Now that we were actually walking into the science building, masked up and ready for the day, he looked like he was about to pass out. 

“Breathe, dude,” I told him, elbowing his side as he barely glanced my way, his face ashen around the edges of his mask. 

“Shut up.” 

“What’s the matter with you anyway?” I tried, but just as Dean was about to reply, something caught his eye down the hall. He stopped in his tracks, staring. 

When I turned to follow his gaze, I saw Castiel standing down the corridor. He was leaning in to hear what someone—I was pretty sure it was Hannah but it was difficult to tell when everyone was masked up—was saying.

“Oh,” I said, perhaps unhelpfully, then had to whip around with lightning speed to grab Dean’s arm, since he’d started to turn and head back down the corridor, away from Cas and Hannah. “What’re you doing?”

Dean muttered, “What does it look like? Going to class.” 

“Like hell you are,” I said. I was about to drag him over there by the ear, but instead I settled for pulling him by the forearm, muttering something like, “You’ve been dying to see him for months, don’t give me this bashful crap now, Winchester.”

We dodged around the students hurrying to class, and as we got closer, Hannah saw us first. I called out. “What up, Hannah. Hey, Cas!”

Castiel turned, his eyes wide as Dean and I approached.

When Dean spoke, it was in the softest voice I think I’ve ever heard from him. “Hey, Cas.” 

“Dean.” 

The name was like a revelation, like Cas was seeing the sun rising for the first time after a long winter—which, to be fair, wasn’t too far from how we were all feeling about being out of lockdown. I couldn’t see the smile on his face behind his mask, but it was all in those big blue eyes, and man...I’ve known I wasn’t into boys in that way since I was eleven years old, but I had been telling Dean ever since we met him that Cas was dreamy. 

And then Cas just launched himself at Dean, wrapping his big arms around the guy, pulling him in tight. Dean sort of awkwardly patted Cas’ back and said “Okay, okay,” with a chuckle, but I could see his eyes getting misty from where I stood and let me tell you, I nearly shed a tear myself, but settled for an “aw,” and a shared “ _can you believe this?_ ” grin with Hannah. 

Seeing people in the flesh is so different to video chat, you know? The isolation we’ve all felt during this year has got to have affected us all in ways that we don’t really know how to measure.

Neither of them had eyes for anyone besides each other, and as Dean wrapped his arm around Cas’ shoulders, they headed off down the corridor, their masked faces close, leaving Hannah and I standing awkwardly in their wake. Thanks for that, guys.

“What _was_ that?” Hannah said, confusion plain in their eyes when I turned to them.

I just shrugged. “Guess they missed each other?”

I dunno, they probably just went and sucked face in a very non-covid-safe manner, but who knows? All I know is, Cas is now part of our “family” bubble, and moved most of his crap into Dean’s room within two weeks of the semester starting. I doubt they ever get much work done, but what, pray, can stop true love?

I’ll tell you what can—the most expensive pair of noise-cancelling earphones I could find. Those babies are worth every penny.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Make sure you go check out the other fics and artwork in the SQZ collection.
> 
> If you enjoyed this story, you can share it with your besties via this tweet, or this tumblr post (links coming). 
> 
> Have you been listening to [Mixtape Book Club Podcast](https://mixtapebookclub.com)? I hope you're enjoying it! MalMuses and I are soothing (or so I've been told).
> 
> What's next? Well, I'm sorry if this wasn't the Baby Whispering part two you were hoping for, but that's coming soon. Along with my fic for the Media Big Bang...but that's a little further off. 
> 
> Hope you're all doing okay ❤


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